Villa benefit from extra time - AVB

Andre Villas-Boas believes Aston Villa's extra preparation and recovery time could give them a decisive edge over his Tottenham side in the Capital One Cup third-round tie.

The Portuguese has made his thoughts on the scheduling of the fixture well known, as it comes barely 48 hours after their Premier League win at Cardiff on Sunday.

Villa, meanwhile, have had an extra day to ready themselves following their win at Norwich on Saturday.

Villas-Boas understands the reasoning for the timing of the game, which is due to Birmingham and West Brom being at home to Swansea and Arsenal respectively on Wednesday, and concerns over the potential impact on crowd safety due to policing demands.

But he feels it puts his side at a significant disadvantage.

"It is difficult, the ideal situation for us would have been to play Wednesday," he said.

"I understand the situation for the police with a number of matches being played in Birmingham, but we do not have the same chance as other teams.

"Villa will not have to do the same (in terms of squad rotation) as they played on Saturday, so they have had an extra day of recovery."

He added: "This is an impossible game for us to play, but hopefully our team spirit and motivation can get us through.

"It (the Capital One Cup) is not our absolute number one priority but I don't think we have been given a fair chance to play in this competition this year.

"It could be possible for the players who played against Cardiff to play this game, but I am not sure I want to risk the players who played getting a hamstring injury which could take them six weeks to recover from when the Premier League is more important."

Villas-Boas is expected to make a number of changes for Tottenham's third game in six days, but one man who will definitely not play a part is defender Danny Rose, while striker Jermain Defoe is a doubt with a groin problem.

However, Villas-Boas is confident he will have full-back Rose available for the weekend meeting with Chelsea.

"Danny's injury is not on his ankle, it is on his big toe," he said.

"We have good news in that there is no fracture but there is another extension of the toe which has left him with some pain.

"We will reassess him and if he is okay and there is definitely no fracture he will probably be back for Chelsea."